Preparing to bring my new boat home

[Bob Bradley]

As many of you know, I’ve bought another Hatteras, this one with Cummins QSM11’s making 535hp. She’s an ’86 Hatt 45C in very nice shape. Nobody got too “creative” on the interior, and the exterior was gone over and painted several years ago. With help from Randy, I’ll be moving her north from New Bern NC to New Haven CT in 3 weeks. She will replace my ’79 Hatt 43C with DD 6v92TA’s making 435hp.

I’ve always done all my own engine work and maintenance, but timing and distance leave me depending on the yard to get most of the prep work done for the trip north. It will be an approximately 500 mile trip over 4 to 6 days, depending on weather and luck. The engines surveyed out quite well and the sea trial also went well. I’m really just looking for a sanity check on getting prepped for the trip.

The yard will be doing the commissioning after layup for the winter. Oil changes on the mains and genny, fuel filters, coolant checks, tranni oil levels, etc – the usual stuff. Visual checks of the hoses and clamps, belt condition and tension. Impellers were done at the start of last season and have less than 50 hours on them. There are spares on board. The yard will exercise all the through hull valves.

So, what am I missing? The belts on the mains were replaced in 2017. Probably have 200 hours on them. I haven’t had to deal with alternator belts since I sold my gas powered Chris when I bought the 43C in 2003. Should I replace them? Part of me would like them to be new, but I also worry about new belts breaking in and stretching over the first 10 – 20 hrs of running, leaving me with the job of adjusting them in a hot engine room on the way home. What are your thoughts?

As far as spares onboard, the previous owner has left a fairly full complement. I plan on having fuel filters (primary and secondary), impellers for the mains and genny, pre-mixed 50-50 coolant, engine oil, tranni oil, some spare hose clamps, and a jug of diesel fuel. I will have a pretty comprehensive set of tools with me, including an impeller puller. Any other special tools or spare parts you can think of that I should add?

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Bob,

Don't know how much of this is applicable you boat.

1. I'd like to have some lengths of fuel hose with push on unions for just in case. I have 1/2" & 3/8" on Aslan, don't know about your Cummins.

2. Some lengths of silicone hose in whatever sizes. When you say "some spare hose clamps", I'd make that a bunch.

3. Some hynautic or applicable hydraulic oil plus some lengths of hydraulic hose with unions and plenty of oil pads.

4. How about some jumper cables if you need to bridge banks?

I'm sure others will have some ideas. Good luck with the trip. Looking forward to hearing about it.

[Cricket]

Bob got mine already, steering supplies and some jumper wires.
We carry a 25' single jumper so we can basically jump out anything in the ER and a few short ones.
For me there's no such thing as having too many Racors and secondaries on board, especially with an unknown boat, they don't go bad when put back in the garage.

Oh, one more thing, up to date life raft, and handheld VHF and GPS.

Good luck with the trip, hopefully the weather is cooperative.

[jim rosenthal]

A bale of oil absorbing pads, if you don't already have them. Whoops, RAC already mentioned those.

Spare sunglasses and reading glasses, if you use them. Ask me how I know.

Fig Newtons. Or cookies of choice.

Have a great trip. Once again, if you decide to come up the Chesapeake Bay, let me know. If you stop in or near Annapolis, dinner on me. And a doggie bag for Randy.

[Bob Bradley]

Thanks. Great offer, Jim. Maybe I'll pray for bad weather. And don't worry about the oil pads; remember I'm a seasoned DD guy. I use those things for handkerchiefs. Good suggestions all around. Keep em coming..

[steve c]

Spare bilge pump, silicon hose tape, large serrated knife or saw, gorilla tape...you can always tape the saw to a boat hook to cut warp from the prop rather than going into the water if you are lucky.

[Cricket]

Think you will be surprised how enjoyable it is to have modern engines.
We now use more oil rags when we're adding oil than oil rags catching leaks because we don't have any oil leaks.
Our 4 strokes use about 1 quart each per canyon trip, figure 150 miles total out and back @ cruise plus trolling all day.
Also really like the digital readouts, sooooo much good info.

[MadHatter53]

Not that you’ll need it but having seatow/boatus towing membership is a no brainer.

[Freeebird]

How about a spare, starboard engine?

[Pascal]

In addition to the above make sure you have a small air pump so you can pump up the hynautic. I also really like having a small electric priming pump just in case...